[cryptonector]

> There is also no such thing as "running out of entropy".

Hear hear. There is, indeed, no such thing as running out of entropy in a modern PRNG's state.

> I don't think this "PRNG" vs. "RNG" distinction is doing us much good.

But it's still nice to seed and periodically reseed a PRNG w/ entropy from an RNG. So there is a distinction between PRNG and RNG to be made, and we should make it. What we really want is to always have an RNG-seeded PRNG, and to always use the PRNG not the RNG.

[cbsmith]

> Hear hear. There is, indeed, no such thing as running out of entropy in a modern PRNG's state.

Yes, of course. PRNG's are about producing random data from a seed. But /dev/random & /dev/urandom isn't just a PRNG.

> What we really want is to always have an RNG-seeded PRNG, and to always use the PRNG not the RNG.

Which is effectively what is going on with /dev/random & /dev/urandom

[tptacek]

At the point where you're simply equating /dev/random and /dev/urandom, you're no longer really disagreeing with anybody here. The only difference between the two is that /dev/random keeps a metric on how many bits its vended, and blocks waiting for rekeying when that metric gets too high. That's more or less a nonsensical thing to do.

[cbsmith]

I'm definitely not saying what /dev/random does makes sense. ;-)